Hey guys and welcome to this video. I'm Prateek, a dentist and specialty doctor,
and in this video we're going to be looking at the Dental Core Training application process
during the COVID pandemic. It's really important to stress before going on through this video that
because the pandemic is so fluid at the moment some of these details could change and they're
provisional details that have been released. What I'll be looking at is the basic steps that are in
the application process as it currently stands with the COVID-19 pandemic; however, in order to
stay up to date remember to check the COPDEND website which I'll link in the description below.
If you're unsure what Dental Core Training is or whether it's for you, please remember to check out
the other video I did on this topic relating to whether Dental Core T raining is truly worth
it but quickly just to go through what Dental Core Training is it refers to up to three years of post
graduate training that you can do following your foundation here and this is training that can be
done in any specialty. So the application timeline has been released and this is it. Like I mentioned
we have to treat this very, very carefully and we have to take it with a pinch of salt. So like I
said, in this video we're going to be looking at the application process and the steps involved
in the application process. It's really important for you to stay up to date with things through the
COPDEND website and the latest application guide that will be uploaded on the COPDEND website. When
you're applying for dental core training, it's also important to check the person
specification. This may not be as important this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but for
future years it's extremely important that you check the person specification. The person
specification tells you kind of the requirements for DCT places and the desired characteristics.
This year there's expected to be a very, very high demand for dental core training posts. There are
also some changes happening with the jobs that are available. Some deaneries are thinking of having
multiple year jobs for example combining DCT1 and DCT2 years together. If we look at the dental core
training application, it's typically divided into four broad parts. The four parts of the application
process involve the online application form, the situational judgement test, an interview and also
preferencing of jobs. There is the application timeline that sets out when each of these windows
open. There is a small possibility that one of the potential outcomes if the pandemic gets worse is
that the interview process might be scrapped completely and we just rely upon situational
judgment tests. Now the online application for dental core training is done by the Oriel platform.
So you need to log on to the Oriel website and you can register on this even before applications open.
You can fill in all your basic details again before applications open this then means that
when the application does open, it's much easier to fill in all the details saving you a lot of time.
It also means it's something that you can start working on even before the applications open up.
Once the dental core training application actually opens, you'll see the post advertised. When you start
filling an application form in for the job, there are various topics and various categories that are
covered. This includes your employment history, your current qualifications, it also includes
potentially preferencing the jobs early on. For those of you who don't know what job preferencing
involves - for dental core training posts similar to your foundation year there will be certain jobs
advertised throughout the country. Now as dental core training is a national recruitment process,
everyone is applying for the same interview and same application scheme. As a result, all the jobs
are open for everyone so you're not applying to a specific area of the country. So when you see all
these jobs advertised, you then have to rank them on your order of preference. Ultimately, as I will
explain towards the end of this video, depending on your rank from the situational judgement test on
your interview test, you are then ranked against all the candidates and depending on where you
fall you are then matched up to your job based on preferencing. For example, if your first and second
jobs are fully subscribed, then you may be put into your third preference and this is why it's
important to preference your jobs and think about what the areas involve and what the jobs involve.
Now let's move on to the situational judgement test. So the situational judgment test or SJT will
be done on a separate day to your interview and in the COVID-19 pandemic, this is likely to be done
either at home or at a Pearson VUE centre. So Pearson Vue entre is similar to those in the
UK, who do your driving theory, where you go to a centre, there's lots of computers and you sit the
exam there. Again you will be invited to do your situational judgment test so make sure you check
your emails and you book in particular times. If you're doing your SJT at home, you need to
make sure that the environment is suitable for the exam. Typically you'll be monitored whilst you're
doing the test and you will be asked to show your surroundings. This is simply to ensure that there's
no one else there helping you and you're not cheating in your exam. Another important thing and
you will be given some requirements for the test, is to make sure that your computer is compatible
with the software. You're typically required to test the software beforehand so this will
give you a good opportunity to ensure things are working but particularly at this time, when it's
difficult to get to other people's houses to use other devices, make sure things are compatible well
in advance so you're not caught off guard on the day. Now this year the situational judgment test
is expected to make up 33% of your overall mark - so a third of your mark. Historically, the SJTs have
been made up of around 130 questions that need to be done in about 115 minutes. The SJTs are there to
cover a range of topics. Unfortunately they're not typically there to check your clinical knowledge
they're more to assess you as an individual and as a personality. The SJTs will be assessing things
such as your appraisal and decision making skills, your ability to cope under pressure,
your critical thinking skills, professionalism and also your ability to provide patient-centred care.
So a lot of this are things not necessarily relating to direct clinical knowledge. SJTs
are notoriously difficult to do well and I will do a separate video on some hints and tips on doing
SJTs. There are typically two types of questions. The first one is a ranking question where you're
given a stem question, a scenario, and you're given five options and you need to rank these from most
appropriate to least appropriate. The other type of question is the 'choose the three most appropriate
actions' type of question. So again in this you're given a stem question and you're given several
options and from this you have to choose the three most appropriate linked answers for the question.
There are some really good books that can help you prepare for these exams. These books include
the 250 SJT questions for Foundation Year Entry and also the Dental Foundation Training Guide
which has situational judgment tests in it. So these tests and these practice questions are going
to be really important and set you up properly for the situational judgment test. Then we move
on to the next step which is the interview process. Now during the COVID-19 pandemic, the interview
process is likely to be carried out on Microsoft Teams and it is going to most probably involve two
stations. One will be a clinical scenario and the other will be a clinical governance station. Both
of these stations will count for another third of your mark. So you have a third from the SJT,
a third from the clinical scenario and a third from the clinical governance stations. Typically
you would have two examiners per station. Again similar to the SJTs, make sure you're
appropriate for interview Microsoft Teams so you're dressed appropriately, you're presenting
yourself appropriately, your surroundings are good as well and again you might be asked to show your
surroundings to make sure there's no one else helping you for the interview. You're expected to
receive the scenarios beforehand so that you can prepare a little bit so the stations are likely
to be around seven and a half minutes each so in total a 15-minute interview. When the interviews
used to be done in person one of the stations used to be a communication station but instead of doing
this as a separate station your communication is going to be assessed through these two stations.
So it's really important that despite the fact that the station's are clinical scenario
and clinical governance, you still have good communication skills so as good as you can get
over an interview on a laptop. If we look briefly at the separate stations, the clinical governance
station is checking aspects for example the seven pillars of clinical governance and I will be doing
a video going through these pillars. In this station you can sometimes also be asked about
ethical scenarios so for example inappropriate treatment and how you would manage this,
safeguarding issues and how you'd manage them. You may also be asked to draw from your own experience
so it's helpful to have examples for a variety of clinical governance scenarios. The other station is
the clinical scenario so this is typically drawing from your actual clinical knowledge and expertise
that you have in an area. So you will be presented with a clinical situation - this could be anything
for example a patient attends A&E following an assault, a patient presents with significant
periodontal disease anything like that and then you would typically be asked questions relating
to the scenario from a clinician's perspective. A lot of these situations you can prepare for but
hopefully if you've got the scenario beforehand you have some time to look at it and to formulate
some answers. I will be covering interview stations in a bit more depth in another video
looking at some other scenarios you may get and basic tips and tricks regarding the interviews
in order to maximise the score that you can get. Following your situational judgment test
and the interview process, it is expected you will then be given a rank. The rank will be likely based
on a scaled situational judgment test score and a weighted interview score. This will then provide
you with the rank number and based upon how you rank nationally you will then be matched up to a
job. So like I mentioned at the top of the video you have the option to re-preference your jobs.
Looking at the timeline for the DCT recruitment this year, it is likely that the job preferencing
window is going to be open for around a month so it's important that you take this time to look at
the jobs that are available and preference them accordingly. So make sure you go onto the COPDEND
website. All the post descriptions are listed there you can get details on the specialty
involved ,you can get details on the likelihood of what the rota will be like and other aspects of
the job commitment. This will then give you lots of information to make sure you make the right
decision when you're preferencing your option. The good thing with having a month to do this is you
can go back and you can change things around until you're happy with the order of jobs that are there.
And like I said, even after offers go out even if you don't get the job that you may necessarily
have wanted, there is likely the option to upgrade so hanging on tight seeing if other people decline
jobs or drop out of the application process and your job may be bumped up. So to summarise, we've
got the four main parts of the application process. We have the application form itself, we have the
situational judgment test, we have the interviews and we have job preferencing. Each of these four
parts are really important, so you need to make sure that you check the application timeline. I
hope you found that little guide useful. If you did like the video please like, comment, subscribe, hit
the notification bell - it does help. If you've got any other suggestions please let me know. All the
helpful links for resources that I have listed in this video are also in the description so you can
get hold of them. Please make sure to also check out my new book Single Best Answer Questions for
Dentistry which is available on the Wiley website with a 20% discount using the code VBT65. Again the
link is in the description, though you can purchase this book from any other major bookstore or retail
website. Now my recommendation in this video is the Dentinal Tubules platform and website. Dentinal Tubules
isn't just about doing CPD. The whole platform takes learning and education to the next level
through the options of an intelligent PDP, study clubs and also the Congress that they
have. I hope you found this video useful again and if you are applying to dental core training,
good luck with the application process. If you do want any help advice or any hints and tips
then please message me on one of the social media handles or leave a comment below . Take care!